Bonne Annee in Paris!

I write this still a little wiped out after staying up to watch my Ducks rip my heart out on Monday night. I won't pretend like I didn't feel a little strange in my pitch black Italian bedroom from 2:30-5:30 AM wearing my U of O baseball cap with my laptop resting on my knees having my normal dramatic reactions to football games... fearing that I'd wake the rest of the family up as I shrieked at interceptions and squealed during epic drives. Only to be ultimately very sad and VERY tired the following day. But the National Championship was the most exciting thing in my life lately. Studying for this exam is slowly draining the life out of me. If you know me, you know I'm not exactly "prone to stress." But having two weeks with nothing on my agenda but studying for one oral exam that determines my entire grade in a class--in a foreign language-- is driving me out of my mind. So, I'll take a break from the Medici family and continue sharing my Christmas break adventure:
Like I said, arriving in Paris was a new beginning. We were determined to enjoy ourselves and forget about all of the catastrophes in Spain. No trouble getting to Paris (as I had my passport back in hand at this point. But not really "in hand" because Megan insisted on carrying all of my important paperwork for the rest of the trip. Probably for the best, in retrospect..) and after a few mishaps on the Paris metro, we made it to our "hostel" that was, in fact, a hotel. But not just any hotel, a one star hotel. So proud of being such, Hotel Metropole Lafayette boasted it's single star on it's sign outside. We knew we were in for a treat. After checking in and realizing that the floor in our room slanted downward--we decided that this was the type of place "where hookers get killed" and thanked the Lord that we were only staying there for one night. And we didn't spend much time there because we decided to tromp around the city all afternoon until we met up with some other HC buddies. Quirk and I walked all over the city, and even managed to lose the Eiffel Tower on our quest toward it because it was shrouded in fog. I would love to hear anyone compete with LOSING the Eiffel Tower. We did eventually find it, and managed to eat some Nutella crepes while basking in its glory. Okay, there's one thing I'm really glad we don't have in Italy. If I had crepes available to me every day I would be unrecognizably fatter by this point. (Instead of just regular fatter) They're so delicious...
That night we met up with some HC buddies, ate some pom frittes, and returned to our sleaze ball hotel to wake up early the next morning and meet up with Katie, Carolyn and Erin! (Katie and Carolyn are the HC friends that we were planning to meet, Erin is an added bonus--Katie's friend from home). The original plan--because Megan and I are really responsible-- had been to not book a hostel for the night of New Years Eve because they were scarce and expensive. But, Katie's dad wasn't so keen on that idea, so they booked a hotel room for three people. So Quirk and I snuck in like sketchballs, spending a solid amount of time loitering outside of the hotel looking homeless. Then, the new years celebrating began. I'll leave that at that.
We decided to meet up with the Holy Cross crew on the Champs de Elysee, the famous shopping street in Paris that ends at the Arc de Triomphe. It was absolutely insane. It felt like Times Square there were so many people. We had an epic reunion (where we found each other in a game of "Marco Polo") there were a lot of hugs shared, as we counted down to midnight--since there we're fireworks or any sort of official celebration--we all started chanting "HO-LY CROSS! HO-LY CROSS!" in unison. It was glorious.
The night unfortunately ended in Katie and Erin's cell phones getting stolen on the disturbing packed metro, and the horrifying discovery that Paris doesn't have any pizza delivery places open at 3:30 AM. Bummer.
More Paris to come, but I wanted to publish this to feel like I've accomplished SOMETHING. Because it's certainly not studying. Wahhh. I still have a week until this stupid test. Fortunately, we've started brainstorming trips to leave for the second we get out of the exam. We're thinking Vienna.
Vi voglio benissimo! Baci!